HD 4000 series goes mobile, brings performance with it

AMD's much-loved HD 4000 series debuted last summer and has slowly transitioned to cover the company's entire desktop product line. Mobile systems, however, have remained reliant on the aged HD 3000 series—until now. AMD revealed its upgraded mobile series at CES this past weekend, including new options for the ultra thin-and-light segment. Comparative statistics on the new parts are below:

The HD 4800 Mobility is obviously the crown jewel of the line (the stats given here are for the highest-end 4870), but the Mobility Radeon 4600 should still equal or surpass the Mobility 3850

Estimated TDP varies significantly, from 47-55W on the HD 4870 (40-48W for the 4850), 30W on the 4600 series, and 8-12W on the 4500.

New this time around is the HD 4300 series with a TDP of just 7W. The Mobility 4300 series will still carry ATI's UVD2 HD decoding engine, but offers neither CrossfireX or Hybrid Crossfire support. It may not offer much in the way of 3D performance, but the 4300's low power consumption should fit well when paired with AMD's Yukon platform.

AMD representatives brought along samples of the various cards, as pictured below. If you look closely, you'll notice that all of the cards use the same style of connector. That, ladies and gentlemen, is an MXM-II link—but the dream of upgradeable video solutions in laptops remains just that.

This Crossfire card brings back memories of the Voodoo5 series. According to AMD, it designed a single-card Crossfire solution for one OEM in particular; most companies that want Crossfire use two Mobility 4800 cards and link them via dongle.